Blog Your Blessings: Mom and Dad

When the first selectman left me an automated voice message telling me to be very careful in the intense summer heat on Tuesday, I was only too happy to oblige. So was my daughter, who agreed that getting out to the school bus on time would exceed the town father's recommended amount of exertion per minute per square inch of person.

So, heck, we played hooky--or, more accurately, she played hooky and I was her willing accomplice. In fact, I thought up the idea. It made sense--to a lot of people. Wherever we stopped, someone would say, "No school today?" We'd say, "Playing hooky and going swimming." They'd say, "Good for you. I won't tell." Wherever we went, we had accomplices who weren't working too hard or fast, either.

Ever so slowly, ever so carefully, we rode over to my parents' home in Newtown to plant some pumpkin, cucumber, and radish seedlings and to swim.

Along the way, we happened upon one box turtle who had not heard that school in Newtown was delayed and who therefore chose the exact wrong time to cross the road ever so slowly. So we shanghaied him. He too played hooky at grandma and grandpa's house. He was good company for our short ride, too. He crawled all over everything but neither pooped nor peed on anything. My kind of passenger.

Adella jumped for joy when she saw my nephew Adam was at my parents' house, so he got to see the turtle, whom he named Slow Poke after taking him in with a long, incredulous look (see above). We deposited the new family friend in a cool, shady area full of ferns and made our way to the important business of swimming.

I planted the young plants while Adella and my dad splashed about. I enjoyed the summer sun and heat and the pleasure of the garden while I listened to my daughter present each new style of flip and turn to my dad. Grandpa challenged her to swim and dive and rescue abandoned toys from the bottom of the deep end. She took the challenges and rose to each one. So much for slowly, carefully...Grandpa paid $1 for each rescued toy. At that rate, a girl hops to.

Grandma joined us for rest and snacks and a lesson from Adella on how to play the games on the Webkinz site.

On the way home, a doe crossed the street in front of us and faded into the shade of the woods. She moved slowly, carefully, soundlessly, almost imperceptibly, and she was gone in an instant. Day faded into evening, and evening into a thunderstorm that shook the earth. No noise could reach my dreaming daughter, who didn't stir in her deep and silent, satisfied, sleep.

Thank you, mom and dad.

Blog Your Blessings